How is some human remains a “priceless artifact”? That’s the point, besides like 100 people in the world, Noone gives a single shit.
The archeologists. It says so in the title.
Probably because they would have liked to have been able to study the priceless artifacts, and have them available for future study, and education
CookieJarObserver@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
toasteecup@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Ok no. They aren’t human remains, they are incredibly ancient ancestors of humans.
Pick out a hobby of yours for a moment. Something you like. Now let’s say that someone found an artifact related to the early days of that hobby. It’s a very rare one, like maybe the Nintendo PlayStation. Something cool that’s worth studying and learning about what could have been.
Now imagine some rich dickhead fucking blasted it to the edge of the fucking universe. Guess what, we can’t fucking learn about it anymore BECAUSE NOTHING CAN MAKE A FICKING ROUND TRIP TO GET IT BACK WITH CURRENT TECHNOLOGY. Anything we could have possibly learned about it. Gone.
And your response is “so what?”
theKalash@feddit.ch 1 year ago
I mean it didn’t crash? They are still available.
Cris_Color@lemmy.world 1 year ago
And potentially altered by having been unnecessarily put through extremely abnormal treatment, meaning any conclusions you draw from studying them are muddied by having been blasted out into space, regardless of having come back.
Folks have brought up that taking them into space exposes them to high levels of radiation, and the proper steps may not have been taken to protect the remains from said radiation. Folks have argued that because they were in a craft, that they won’t have been exposed to any radiation, but thats not how that works- people who take a flight on a regular airplane are exposed to higher levels of radiation, nevermind spacecraft. Taking the remains into space needlessly reduces their value to scientists who may have learned things from them, and now what they learn may not be meaningful or helpful, because the remains were handled so unusually.
It was entirely unnecessary, nothing was gained by having done it, and it has a cost to science, so the scientists are unhappy- that hardly seems unsurprising.
theKalash@feddit.ch 1 year ago
It was hardly even in space. Sure it was unnessery, but no worse then shipping them somewhere by plane.
Cris_Color@lemmy.world 1 year ago
If they were shipped somewhere by plane by the scientists, they would have taken the appropriate steps to ensure the preservation of the sample, and the less atmosphere between you and the sun, the more radiation you’ll experience.
toasteecup@lemmy.world 1 year ago
The remains, were blasted out into space.
They are not available, they are irretrievably gone.
They couldn’t be more lost to the annuals of time than things thrown in a volcano.